Gita 05.29 – Peace comes by devotion to the all-powerful, all-loving Lord

Thank you yantvamam shanti vichati this is the only verse in the fifth chapter wherein a mention of bhakti comes so the whole chapter focus primarily on karma yoga and how by the practice of karma yoga when it is redirected towards or when it is imbued with knowledge of the absolute truth can lead to liberation that was the rest of the chapter then 27-28 verses talked about ashtamayoga and 29th verse talks about bhakti yoga so this bhakti will be talked about elaborately from the 7th to the 12th chapters so that is so karma yoga how it ultimately culminates in bhakti yoga that is indirectly demonstrated in this verse that even chapter on karma yoga krishna is talking about him about the centrality of knowing him there has been no mention of him till now in this chapter and brahma of course is there repeatedly but specifically maam is coming in this verse quite emphatically so there are sacrifices which are done in austerity that are performed they are done for the pleasure of a particular person and that person is krishna so different austerities are performed as a part of religious practices and krishna is saying their object i am that object krishna will talk about this again in 9th chapter 9.24 so you see that i am the enjoyer of all sacrifices so one who doesn't know this falls away krishna says that here he says that one who knows me thus such a person will attain peace on knowing me so that means although these sacrifices austerities may be performed for different gods krishna has earlier talked about how so 3.11 and then 12 so there he has talked about how yagyas are to be performed and by that the devatas will be satisfied so the devatas there are yagyas in which there are portions given to the devatas portions of sacrifices that are given but the person for whom the sacrifice is ultimately meant is krishna and only when one understands this will one attain peace otherwise peace is not possible why because when we offer ourselves to krishna then we attain pure eternal love and that love satisfies the heart and when the heart is satisfied then there can be peace so all other desires apart from the desire to love and serve krishna those other desires can get categorized into three so bhukti is the aspiration of the karmakandis mukti is the aspiration of the gyandis and siddhi is the aspiration of the yogis that means those who are in path of bhakti all of these people are ashanta they are restless so chaitanya jyotam is confirming here krishna bhakta nishkama ateva shantam he is reiterating what is said in the bhagavad gita over here that one who is devoted to krishna is always happy now when we consider this point that actually the perfect object, the supreme object the best object for offering our sacrifices for offering our for doing austerities for the pleasure of that is krishna sarvaloka maheshwaram why is it that we should do all this for krishna because he is naturally the supreme he is the proprietor of everything sarvaloka maheshwaram there are different devatas who are the ishwaras of their own lokas but krishna is the maheshwara he is the lord of all the lokas all the devatas have their planets and they when the demons attack them they flee from there and they go to vishnu for help so sometimes they were usurped from their throne also but krishna is krishna and vishnu they are the same person he is the proprietor of everything sarvaloka maheshwaram and if these two give an impression that krishna is like a dictator i am the enjoyer, i am the owner serve me bow down to me be my slave, lick my foot lick my boots no that is not krishna's mood krishna is surdham sarvabhutanam he is the well-wisher of all living beings he is our greatest friend the word surdha actually refers to a very intimate friend, not a nominal friend not an official friend but a friend who resides in our heart surdha so one who resides in our heart and one who's heart we reside surdham sarvabhutanam and now he is the surdha, it's significant krishna is not saying that i am the surdha of my devotees alone he says he is the surdha of all living beings sarvabhutanam he is the well-wisher of all living beings irrespective of whether they love and serve him or not he loves them so much that he stays in their heart and from there he acts constantly for their well-being so he is very close to us not just in terms of situation but also in terms of affection surdham situated very close to us in our heart in terms of affection he is the closest nobody can be a greater well-wisher for us of ours than krishna and when we understand this we understand this there will be peace now what does this sudden introduction of peace refer to krishna and arjuna are on a battlefield and arjuna is thinking whether he can achieve peace by avoiding war by forsaking his right to the kingdom can he avoid war and get peace krishna is telling him another way to get peace that is by knowing his position so here when krishna is talking about shanti that is not so much of outer peace in terms of absence of war because outer peace is fragile any moment an opposing force can come up and prevent and disrupt the peace but actually when we in our heart harmonize with krishna krishna you are my lord i am your servant and whatever situation you put me in i will keep serving you please oh lord keep me engaged in your service when we act in this mood then no situation will disturb us no situation will rob us of our peace because we will know that whatever situation comes in my life i will continue serving krishna this may happen or that may happen wealth may go away political situation may change financial situation may change physical health may change but still i can keep remembering serving and loving krishna and because our relationship with krishna doesn't depend on anything material and because because material upheavals can affect only the material so especially when we are not attached to anything material then material upheavals cannot affect our consciousness and so on no matter what happens at the material level we can stay peaceful in our relationship with krishna prabhupada also you refer to this verse as the peace formula because only when there is individual peace can there be social peace and global peace only peaceful individuals can bring about a peaceful society peace peace in the world cannot come just by some political agreements or some military treaties because even if there is a cessation of hostility cessation of fighting because of that the bellicose mentality, the tendency to fight is still very much there and that will make people fight sooner or later but if one understands that I am a part of Krishna and in loving and serving Krishna is my greatest good and thus one starts dedicating oneself voluntarily to the service of Krishna then in that there is lasting peace because the soul can stay connected with Krishna forever and serve Krishna forever in this life as well as in the next thank you.